the show. it's a touching story. >> sounds kind of sketchy. >> meanwhile, in the after the show show, home free does "white christmas." have a great weekend. good deal? a civil war brewing in washington as congress narrowly avoids a government shutdown i a proving a trillion dollar spending deal with only hours to spare. good morning, a lot to go through today. i'm bill hemmer. welcome to "america's newsroom." martha: good morning after the big party. we're ready to go on a friday morning. good morning, everybody, i'm martha maccallum. interesting activity, bill passed by 13 votes. 57 democrats sided with majority of republicans in the house, viewing a bit of a rift inside of the democratic party. watch this. >> shows we can govern. that we will not have a government shutdown. we will not have government on

autopilot and we will be able to fund our responsibilities. >> so here we are in the house, being blackmailed, being blackmailed to vote for an appropriations bill. >> not happy at all. chief congressional correspondent mike emanuel live on capitol hill. mike, this now moves to the senate. they bought themselves a couple of days here. there will definitely be vocal opposition from the left there as well, right? >> reporter: martha, no question about that. you can expect possible 2016 presidential contender to be front and center. massachusetts senator elizabeth warren came out early against the package because it would weaken dodd-frank banking regulation. warren urged her allies in the house and senate to stand up and fight. >> a vote for this bill is a developed for future taxpayer bailouts of wall street. when the next bailout comes, a lot of people will look back to this vote to see who was responsible for putting the

government pack on the hook -- back on the hook to bail out wall street. >> reporter: to be clear, you will also expect to hear some opposition on the right. oklahoma senator tom coburn who is retiring, is probably going through that 1600 page bill looking for what he would consider goodies and wasteful spending, martha. martha: no doubt. dissatisfaction on the right with this whole thing as well. it took a very complicated alliance to get this through the house side, an interesting one, truly. >> reporter: march that mo question about. that we were essentially stuck here on capitol hill. you had the president and vice president working phones to work on house democrats. chief of staff on the hill trying to twist arms as well. the change seemed to come when house democratic whip steny hoyer split with nancy pelosi and urged his colleagues to support it. >> i have concluded that it is better for us to pass this "cromnibus" as euphemistically

referred to, to defeat it. i urge my members to vote for this crummy bus. >> while some -- "cromnibus". >> some members objected to this and that we did it in bipartisan fashion and it's a good bill. >> reporter: we should get a better sense of timing in the senate later this morning, mart. martha: thank you, mike. bill: the old "cromnibus." many conservative republicans are not happy with this. it delays the fight over executive action and immigration. utah senator mike lee argues that the spending bill contains breaks for big business but not everybody else. >> again we have special favors for wall street and for k street and no real special favors for main street or middle class americans. >> we'll talk with karl rove about that and what speaker boehner's grand strategy might be at work here and whether anything in wrong ton has

changed after two elections. martha: has anything changed after two elections? do you have faith in this next congress and what they will do? send us a tweet @billhemmer, @marthamaccallum. we'll see what you're saying about it. bill: democrats have lost 75 seats in the house over two midterms. they're down what, 14 senators. the same period of time. >> yeah. bill: what will you get for that america? we'll talk with karl rove. four minutes past. cia director john brennan defending the agency against a senate report critical of enhanced interrogation tactics. brennan reminding people of the climate after 9/11 admitting mistakes early on and questioned the views of the report including whether the program led to useful intelligence. >> cause and effect of relationship between use of eits and useful information subsequently provided by the

detainee is in my view unknowable. but for someone to say there was no intelligence of value of use, that came from those detainees, once they were subjected to eits, i think that is, lacks any foundation at all. bill: let's talk about that with steven hayes, senior write letter, "weekly standard," fox news contributor. good morning to you. >> good morning, bill. bill: you wrote a piece today called, tortured report. democrats acting if they were in the dark on this the evidence suggests otherwise. explain that. why? >> no question. look at comments people like nancy pelosi and jay rockefeller made in public, distancing themselves from the report and from the briefings about the details of the techniques that were use, just doesn't hold up. if you go back and look at cia provided timelines and public statements from people like jay rockefeller at the time in support of aggressive interrogations, it strains credulity to believe behind the scenes they were opposing these

things but in public they were saying supportive things. bill: what do you think about brennan had to say? is he trying to have it both ways? >> he is definitely trying to have it both ways. think one second what john brennan is trying to say it makes no sense. on one hand he is saying, look, we don't know there is cause effect relationship between the use of these techniques and valuable information that was provided. but if you peel that back a little bit we could know that you had detainees formally resistant, uncooperative. they were put through the enhanced interrogation techniques and cale out on the other end and were later cooperative. brennan would have you believe that was a mere coincidence. i think what brennan is trying to do is reconcile the president's view, the president's decision to stop the use of these techniques with the senate's complaint that they didn't work at all and all of that against a backdrop that he knows that they worked and that the cia believes they worked. bill: he still needs people to work for them and under him at a critical time.

>> right. bill: rich lowery writes this on the screen about dianne feinstein. the senate intelligence committee spent roughly $50 million in the cia and could not find michael hayden's phone number. it portrays general hayden as a liar and deceived the committee about the interrogation program yet the committee could not be bothered to interview him because it didn't bother to view anyone. he calls this depiction of the cia cartoonish are steve. >> cartoonish might be kind. that is the major problem with this report, it was not an attempt ever to be a fair report and serious examination of the costs an benefits of these kinds of enhanced interrogation techniques. one of the things we discuss in the article we have out in the "weekly standard" this morning is the use of an email that senate democrats, the authors of the report, used selectively of the they take one part of the email that supports what they say but they totally omit a second part of the email that not only contradicts the claims they're making about the

effectiveness of these techniques but actually invalidates their argument all together but they just leave that out. that is not intellectually honest. that is breathtakingtual dishons nobody any good. bill: wow. steve hayes out of washington. appreciate your time. >> the nation dealing with the most powerful storm in five years that is slamming the west coast. it's a scene in someplaces along the coast. it is called "the pineapple express" and it is knocking homes right off of their foundations. the storm bringing hurricane force wind in some areas. more than nine inches of rain, stranded motorists left hundreds of thousands of people with no power in their homes. here is what it looked like north of san francisco. crews rescuing people from nearly four feet of water there. for some folks all of this comes as no surprise. >> the water comes down from the

hills. and, if it is high tide, comes from the delta. and we happened to be probably on the lowest part of the, the street. >> tough spot to be sure. william la jeunesse reporting from malibu. william, this storm is really causing a lot of trouble obviously for people in california. >> reporter: it is a massive storm, martha. and we are really feeling the brunt of it right now. the rain started about two hours ago. i'm here in malibu. we're here because of the rockslides and mudslides. that is always a threat. we had winds last night around midnight up to 71 miles an hour in l.a. county. let's take a video from camarillo where i spoke to you from last week. camarillo springs undermannedder to evacuation because of a mudslide there. there is so much rain coming down so quickly, up to an inch an hour, the ground just can not handle it. we have flash flood warnings in los angeles, santa barbara and ventura counties.

this all began yesterday up north in san francisco. about 100,000 people there went without power. they were getting around sonoma county in kayaks. fallen trees and power outages and traffic nightmare just not in san francisco yesterday but coming in today, several freeways in los angeles are closed entirely. and you can imagine what nightmare that is for commuters. martha? martha: it's a nightmare. is there any upside to this, is it a positive impact on the drought there or not really? >> yeah. it is going to help a great deal. it is a slow-moving statewide soaker exactly what we need after two years of the driest years on record. of course the key will be the snow pack. we're getting up to nine inches of rain up north and several feet of snow and that is really the water bank for california. that will be critical. they will be looking at those stations in the sierra mountains later today. but california, december,

january, february, as we get 90% of the our moisture that is usable. right now we're getting it down here. it's a good thing. no fatalities, no injuries reported. back to you. martha: william, thank you very much. bill: seeing some folks in kayaks out there, in the parking lot of a strip mall. amazing. martha: terrible. bill: call it a early christmas gift for drivers. prices at pump dropping by the day but could cheaper gas be bad for the economy? stuart varney will sort through that in a moment. martha: talking about bad experiences at the airport, hopefully you didn't have as bad as these people. why they were forced to wait for hours and hours just tapping their toes looking at their phones on the tarmac. bill: thank goodness for the phone. so interesting new fox polling showing divide other grand jury decisions in the michael brown case in ferguson and eric garner chokehold case in new york city. why the majority agree with one but disagree with the other. we'll debate it.

bill: have you seen this on rice in america? a new poll shows voters are split how grand juries handle two deaths of unarmed black men by white police officers. refusing to charge officers in the shootings death of michael brown in ferguson or the chokehold death of eric garner here in new york. a fox poll shows this. a majority of americans agree, 55% with the grand jury's decision in the michael brown

matter. in the new york chokehold case, 57% however, say the grand jury got it wrong. juan williams, fox news political analyst. and mary catherine ham editor-at-large for hotair.com and fox news contributor. good morning to both of you. wow, juan, does this surprise you? >> no, i think it fits what we've seen in just on the street public reaction, interviews and of course, i'm here in washington, bill. what i hear from the politicians. i think it's pretty clear that without any kind of consensus opinion as to what exactly took place in the streets of ferguson, you have had people say you have got to believe in the system and structure. that plays to the traditionalist views of republicans. that is what you see. but in the case of the videotape in the new york incident with the choking, i think there people were kind of surprised. if you look at the poll numbers, you will see that republicans are pretty split about that one and overall, the american people

and whites in general think that it was the wrong decision. bill: mk, it is a split decision essentially. quickly, does this surprise you? >> i'm not surprised for this reason. what you see here is the american people i think evaluating these two cases based on the evidence that they have in front of them and doing quite a bit more soberly than much of the media has done. two cases are not exactly the same because they happened around the same time and have the same demographics and you think people who are not in media trying to make that connection are noticing that. and i think, obviously garner was a more clear-cut situation and that is why people are responding to it in that way. bill: let's broaden our discussion. perhaps this is a a bigger issue. we asked the question about race relations in america since the president has been in office. 62%, almost 2/3, believe it's worse. we also whether you asked or approve or disapprove, the majority, 51% disapprove of race relations in america under this

presidency. mk, why has it not gotten better? >> well, i would probably be on the side that says it hasn't gotten better and probably based on race or belief, ideology have completely different reasons why it has not gotten better. there are many in the minorities in the country say all these conservative white people, they just don't like black people and why they're mad at obama. a a bunch of white conservatives people say you're racist against him because you don't like his policy. around people in the middle are happy to exploit that divide. then you've got well, the most unifying of figures used as race liaison in the white house, mr. al sharpton. i don't think they're doing a lot of help there. bill: juan, you've written books on this stuff and i don't know back in 2008 and 2009 if you would even have an trouble to predict that numbers like this would come in on race in america today. has the president, has the president failed on this, juan? >> you know, failed is an

interesting word. first of all let me say i think there are some larger trend here we have to take into account. i think there are more minorities in the country than ever, more than 1/3 of the population easily and headed toward half. secondly there are more immigrants in the country. i think politics as mary catherine was referring to have become rashallized because republican party is overwhelmingly white and democratic party stands as representative of the minorities in the country. i think on all those fronts, when you talk about, is it a difference over policy? do you not like obama because he is black, obama has some responsibility in the poll that you have, bill. you will see most people think he shouldn't get more involved but you know what? -- bill: you know, juan, so many people in 2009 were saying it would get better. democrats and republicans see it differently and perhaps not surprisingly blacks and whites see it differently. mk, go. >> yeah. i mean i think was one of those people who did not vote for

obama but thought, you know it is good that people have a good feeling about america and after he was elected. now i don't think that america wasser retrievably racist country before he was elected and nice people changed their mind in days afterwards. the bloom is of at rose, part of it because the white house is happy to politicize these divides. that being said as juan said, it is not the president's job necessary to fix race relations in america but i thought he probably missed some opportunities. >> juan, give you last word on that. >> i think if you're asking the first black president to get involved in every racial incident comes up you're asking too much. >> that willmott help. >> that is what people are saying for the most part. we don't really need you here. but it would be better with civil rights leaders who are more credible than sharpton and that bunch. there is all this call for obama to speak out because it looks like we're rudderless on that front in many ways. bill: very interesting.

juan, mary catherine, have a great weekend. 20 minutes past the hour, martha. martha: we all of course remember 9/11. that was the question at the top of the cia director john brennan speaking yesterday when he asked reporters, when he faced reporters for their questions, why he says the context of time of 9/11 is very significant. >> also trapped on the tarmac for eight hours, martha. what caused the travel meltdown. >> it was hot. and the way we were treated was like we were a heard of cows. -- herd of cows. we were herded into this selection when we were allowed off the plane. ♪

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bill: a trip they would rather forget.

a united flight from san francisco to sydney, australia. there was debris on the runway in sydney. they diverted the plane to canberra. that was okay until the passengers sat on the tarmac for eight hours of the plane eventually ran out of food and toilet paper. just about everything. >> for a while we were watching movies but they shut the movie system down. >> it was a comedy of sequence and errors. who do you blame? bill: well at least they had sunshine of the australian airport officials apologizing saying that safety though, still remains their top priority. martha: so folks planning to hit the road for christmas will likely be seeing lower prices at pump. gas prices dropping yet again. national average dipping to 2.$60 a gallon according to aaa as the price of oil is been in free fall, dropping below $59 a barrel. that is low, folks. that is the lowest it has been in five years.

so while drivers may like this, is the economy taking a hit? joining us from our sister network, fox business network's stuart varney. do you think is is good or bad. >> when gas tumble is it good or bad? i'm on the side it is wonderful. it is flat-out plus for every singleets behind the wheel of a car or truck. you are putting money in your pocket. the average will go down some more because the price of oil keeps falling. we're at $58 a barrel today and falling. the price of gas is going to go below 2.50 by christmas, if not further below 2.50. you have actually got a gas war in progress today in oklahoma city. where the cm foodmart is selling regular gas for $1.88 a gallon and there are four or five other stations competing, pushing it down. gas war. i haven't seen it in years and

years and years. martha: i think it is incredible. >> there is the other side of the coin. martha: right. >> there are some casualties, if you own a oil stock you have lost a lot of money. if you're a driller you will not drill so much in the future so you will lay some people off. martha: that will hurt drilling companies that make machinery and all down the line. >> banks are getting worried because russia is in trouble financially because of low oil prices. brazil is in trouble. a lot of banks lent brazil a lot of money. they could have a problem there. we have deflation, believe it or not, that prices are falling, not just for gas but other areas. prices are falling. that's not necessarily good for the economy. but look, if you add it all up, the pluses, the minus, i come down firmly on the side of the pluses. >> kind of stimulating ultimately because people have more money in their wallets to spend on other things. likely down the road we will likely start to do that. it shows we're becoming more and more energy independent. we're still producing a lot of oil, saudi arabia, they hope

things will even out for them, but we don't need them as much anymore and that is big plus,s,s it not. >> america is already the largest producer of natural gas in the world. this week we passed annual rate of oil production of nine million barrels a day. we haven't been there in 20 years. pretty soon we'll be higher than russia, higher than saudi arabia. energy independent. it's a wonderful thing. martha: sound like it. stuart, thank you very much. >> martha, good as always. martha: don't miss vann any on the fox business network,. if you don't know where to find it, fox fox fox business.com/chl finder. bill: we always knoll where to find him. martha: we can track him down. bill: a hollywood power player playing damage control. she is apologizing for remarks she made about president obama. martha: a very uncomfortable story. the head of the cia defending his agency in the wake of that

scary report on interrogation. >> the solemn rows of stars on the memorial wall at cia honor those who have given their lives to protect ours. our intelligence professionals are patriots and we are safer because of their heroic service and sacrifices. i'm an idaho potato farmer

and our big idaho potato truck is still missing. so my buddy here is going to help me find it. here we go. woo who, woah, woah, woah.

it's out there somewhere spreading the word about america's favorite potatoes: heart healthy idaho potatoes and the american heart association's go red for women campaign. if you see it i hope you'll let us know. always look for the grown in idaho seal. bill: we go 9:32 in new york. fox news alert in the middle east. we're watching reports of an attack on the west bank. apparently a palestinian man throwing a chemical substance believed to be acid at an israeli family. a man and four children are injured. the suspect allegedly posed as a hitchhiker and then attacked the family when they slowed down their vehicle. the attacker then shot in the leg by a witness and arrested. more on those developments as we get them here. 9:32. >> cia director john brennan defending his agency in the wake of the scathing senate report, the democratic senate report and

so-called use of torture or enhanced interrogation techniques on terror suspects. during those comments he reminded that the tactics were conceived when the nation was realing from the 9/11 attacks and that the cia was given the task of responding. >> the events of 9/11 will be forever seared into the memories of all americans who bore witness to the single greatest tragedy to befall our homeland in recent history. our nation ached, it cried and it prayed. and in our pain we pledged to come together as one and to do what we could to prevent the usama bin laden and his killing machine from ever carrying out another attack against our beautiful country. never again we vowed, never again. and as has been the case throughout its then 54-year history, cia was looked to for answers. not only to the questions on the threats we faced but also to questions about what we were

going to do be to stop future attacks. >> kt mcfarland former assistant deputy secretary of defense in the reagan administration and security analyst now. he tried to walk the line yesterday, defending his agency and at the same time disagreeing with a little bit with the president and his report. >> i'm not a big john brennan fan but i think he did a terrific job. he was able to be part of the president's administration. he stopped these activities. he didn't call them torture. he defended his agency saying look at the historical context. the crucial part which the democrat torture report said that we got no information, brennan corrected the record and said we did get a lot of information. he didn't make the direct caution and effect link. he didn't say we got the information because they were tortured, but the people with enhanced interrogation gave up

important information including information that led to the hunt of for usama bin laden. martha: we spent last few days going through this exercise. i'm wondering what it was for? no recommendations were made in this report. >> right. martha: why drag owl of this out and spend $40 million, and i still want to know how this cost $40 million. this was generated by congressional staff who get as salary doing their job coming to work every day. what we get out of this? >> i think we got all bad stuff. hear's why. we politicized intelligence. america is so politicized, washington is so politicized on every issue but one place it was always sacred was intelligence community and armed forces of the we never used those for political gain. martha: great point. >> here is what this sets up, democrats being evicted from the senate and they're smashing windows on their way out the door as i have said. what they will now do, having democrat report against a bush administration intelligence decisions, you're now setting this up for five, six years, from now when a new president, a

new group comes into congress and they say, wait a minute. let's go revisit those obama drone strikes where were those constitutional? were those effective? didn't those kill a lot of innocent people? haven't those in fact caused more problems? maybe we should get all that information out in the public. so i think that the really the big takeaway and big legacy is this politicizing the intelligence community. martha: which is such a shame as you say, that should be the one thing as a nation we can get behind. that we need to give them the space to do what they need to do. as everyone remembers, they were charged with a very serious task. that was to find the people that did this to us and help move them into the direction that would eventually bring them into justice but another thing, bill mcgun points out in a "new york post" piece this morning. democrats had a long time to do this. if they wanted to bring forward legislation that would eliminate or outlaw wart boarding an techniques they were unhappy with, they had a long tie to do

that. why haven't they done that? >> it is political thing. do they criticize while they standoffs for people that say, i remember september 11th, i remember that i think anything was justified. the timing is suspicious. i think senate and congress has the right and responsibility for oversight. if there were, if there were some sadists or torturers, we should find them and frankly prosecute them. but do it privately. don't do it for the world to see. don't do it so the north koreans and iranians and russians and chinese can come to criticize america for human rights violations. >> department of justice three times had the opportunity to bring charges. they haven't. here again they said we're releasing this huge report but we're not going to bring any charges against anybody. that sends such a mixed message. just spinning it forward for one moment here, look ahead to the 2016 presidential election. debate environment, right, when questions are asked of

hillary clinton or whoever the democratic nominee is, what would you do in this situation? how would you handle it? the backdrop could be more isis. >> are at backdrop could be more terrorist attacks. what happens, let me ask this. god forbid it does happen, what if there is another terrorist attack? and somehow it is because jihadists were sharpening their blades thinking, let's go get americans because look how terrible they are. where does that blame lie? martha: we'll see. kt, thank you very much. good to have you as always. bill: go navy. >> beat army. bill: are we allowed to say that? martha: kt on the set. better say nothing but that. jack keane is not around. bill: we'll get keane's view next hour. severe weather slamming the west coast. a powerful storm causing dangerous flooding. evacuations have been ordered for some. the latest where a fierce storm is heading now. martha? martha: republicans not in control of the senate yet but battles are already breaking out in congress.

what is the gop's gameplan come january? we'll talk to karl rove about that coming up next. >> the senate would just do its job we wouldn't be here in this process. we wouldn't have these opportunities for people to short-circuit the normal legislative procedures. get fast-acting, long-lasting relief from heartburn with it neutralizes stomach acid and is the only product that forms a protective barrier that helps keep stomach acid in the stomach where it belongs. for fast-acting, long-lasting relief. try gaviscon®.

martha: fire on a luxury cruise ship. it was docked in st. lucia. a crew member and two contractors were killed. more than 600 passengers were able to leave the ship without injuries. the insignia departed san juan, puerto rico, for a 10-day cruise and was to finish in miami. the fire started in the engine room and was then contained. >> say fight tooth and nail and fighting tooth and nail would have been to put our amendment on the floor. in three weeks, we're all going to raise our right hand and

swear to defend the constitution from all enemies both foreign and domestic, and that was an abdication of our duty. to fund something we believe is unconstitutional. bill: last night with sean hannity, republican congressman matt salmon blasting house speaker john boehner. they scrambled together a majority to approve this trillion dollar spending bill by a whisper. the republicans take majority in january as you know. what will be the grand strategy for speaker boehner then? karl rove, senior staff advisor for president george w. bush and fox news contributor among many other things. from austin, karl, good morning to you. welcome back here. i want to talk about the strategy for boehner. steve scalise said tonight we set the stage for a battle with the president. what are republicans doing, karl? >> well they, last night they basically funded the government for the balance of the fiscal year, except for the department of homeland security which they funded through february. and then in january and february, the house republicans

are going to come back and try and rein in the president on his executive order on immigration by putting riders on the department of homeland security's funding bill. look, i think there is a wide consensus within the republicans, both in house and senate, this ought to be done. there is a difference over tactics. congressman salmon wanted to have the battle now. speaker boehner wants the battle in january. rather than having 45 republicans in the senate, there are 54. rather than having 234 republicans in the house, there are 245. and he thinks that that will not only mean a stron also means a greater likelihood that democrats will come along with them. bill: wow. >> very hard to see -- bill: you think that boehner's strategy will appease the conservatives who voted no last night? >> i'm not certain it will, look, there is a group within that element, no matter what boehner does they will be uncomfortable and unhappy wit. there is a small group of them. not all of them but a small

group of them who are in permanent opposition. but i do thinking members like salmon and others will, will be more than placated by the republicans taking up in january and february similar measures in an effort to, when the dhs bill comes up, the dhs, dhs funding bill, department of homeland security funding bill they can rein in the president and do so with not only house voting for it, the house would have done that last night by a good margin but when you have 50 -- 55 democrats in the senate as they have today, there is little or no chance of getting the 60 votes necessary to pass a measure with that kind of rider on it. bill: that is interesting so we wait in 2015. take it outside of washington. take it to the american voter. this bill was nearly 2,000 pages long. it is a trillion dollars plus. remember all the battles we've been having past six years. what's changed in washington? >> well, look, we have had a broken budget system since 2008. the last time that we passed a

budget in the regular order with a subcommittees working it through and committees voting on it and everything getting done largely before the first of october, beginning of fiscal year was in 2007 for fy-2008. ever since then, particularly under the obama administration we've been funding government in, a couple of months at a time. that is a stupid way to go about doing it. boehner wants to return the entire congress and entire government to what happened in the republican house the last two years and that is that they considered these appropriations bills in regular order and passed virtually all of them before the deadline. they were not taken up by the dysfunctional senate under harry reid. as a result we find ourselves where we are. we haves pad, we have funded the got since 2009 by passing a whole series of very large bills every couple of months. every time you pass a continuing resolution, it is not one or two pages long. it's a large document, funding the government for 45 days, 60 days, 90 days, 120 days. bill: you're arguing government is more effective now and

working again, is that what you're saying? >> no, i'm not. i'm saying this last acts of dysfunctionalty. boehner wants to get it next year in 2015, when they wipe the budget goes from october of 2015 to end of september 2016 they do it as is required by law in regular order so that these budgets can be examined in detail by respective committees of the house and senate and done, have plenty of time to consider these things as the house did this year. the house, the house budget was passed in regular order on time, largely on time. and the senate just refused to take those bills up. hence we find ourselves in a place where we're four months into the, three months into the fiscal year, funding ourselves month to month to month. bill: take it back to the american voter. 75 house seats lost by democrat by the president in four years. 14 senate seats lost by democrats and president in four years. what is the american voter, karl, getting for its vote? >> well, look, we're going to

see the results next year. my sense is that, look, house republicans passed a large number of very constructive, positive bills have to do with reining in government spending, reforming government, encouraging growth of jobs in the private economy, reducing unnecessary regulation. many passed on big votes with lots of democrats voting for them. all of them went to die in the u.s. senate. the key test for the republicans is going be next year in a new congress is the house going to pass similar measures? will they be taken up by the senate? will they be considered and passed, sent to the president for his signature or his veto. that will be real test. in this bill last night, one of the reince why democrats were opposed to it, had too little spending, had necessary reforms of dodd-frank, cut money for irs. cut money for pet programs of the white house. they voted against it 72% of the them voted against it because they didn't conform to what they wanted to have.

that is the way the system works. it women be even worse next year. bill: will make january interesting. mitch mcconnell in the senate, argument you're making robly all likelihood pass from the house to the senate. we'll see very interesting decisions by white house. karl rove, thank you. in austin. >> merry christmas. bill: merry christmas to you. >> one of the biggest power players in hollywood is now in some serious hot water after leaked emails show her joking about president obama with many people calling those remarks at the least racially insensitive. bill: also a time capsule, a bit of a mystery. more than 200 years ago by some very problem men figures in u.s. history. -- prominent. >> it was very, very hard and dense. we were thinking it might be crumbly after so many years. it is quite solid. so it has taken a long time to chris sill it and drill it.

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around the internet. it shows bashing a-list stars and taking aim at president obama, making racially tinged jokes about kinds of movies he would probably like. all of which have african-american stars in them. very odd exchange in these emails. will carr following the story from our west coast newsroom. what are we hearing from the sony executives in terms of apologies at this point? >> well, good morning, martha. both quickly came out yesterday and offered their own apologies. now this firestorm started after emails between the two were leaked online between sony pictures co-chairman amy pascual, and producer scott rudin. pascual who is a big money democratic donor and rudin exchanged comments about president obama and derogatory statements about a numb per of celebrities. of the pascual released this statement. the content of my emails to scott are inappropriate and not

reflection who i am. although this was private communication that was stolen i accept full responsibility what i rote and apologize to everyone who was offended. rudin who produced movies like "moneyball," the road din and captain still lips apologized as well. but many critics question if they're sincere. >> both are infamous for their tempers and being cunning and biting. these leaked emails are no surprise. everyone knows that they have very big egos and get say what they want to say aget away wit. >> reporter: some conservative critics wonder if these were conservative executives if the backlash would be that much worse, martha. martha: we think there will be more of that. this hack something going on and on for sony. it's a nightmare for this company. >> reporter: that's right. it really seems like it is just the beginning right now of all the documents that were hacked for sony, only a small amount

have been leaked online. those we've seen seen so far contain negative comments about angelina jolie, leonardo dicaprio, tom cruise. and also celebrities social security numbers wound up online. it comes at the same time as release of the sony movie, "the interview," a comedy condemned by north korea. the fbi says north korea could behind the attacks. martha, that is still under investigation. >> indeed. will, thank you very much. >> is there a new civil war among democrats now? many going public against the president. we watched it last night. chris stirewalt is standing by to react this morning. martha: and we will look at the growing pushback against a scathing senate report on the cia's use of enhanced interrogation techniques in the wake of the 9/11 terror attacks when you've only have one hand,

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that it's given me time toabout reflect on some of life'seen biggest questions. like, if you could save hundreds on car insurance by making one simple call, why wouldn't you make that call? see, the only thing i can think of is that you can't get any... bars. ah, that's better. it's a beautiful view. i wonder if i can see mt. rushmore from here. geico. fifteen minutes could save you fifteen percent or more on car insurance. martha: accusations of blackmail and intimidation flying around

on capitol hill this morning, some democrats outraged over what they say was being pushed around, essentially, during the spending bill debate but not by republicans, by the white house. welcome, everybody. brand new hour of "america's newsroom" on a friday, i'm martha maccallum. bill: and i'm bill hemmer, good morning. liberals blasted the president for supporting this republican bill. charles krauthammer saying democrats are at war with each other. watch. >> if you're a republican, you should simply sit back and enjoy this. people have been talking about the great civil war among republicans. i've argued that it's rubbish. the real civil war, especially after this election, is among the democrats, and we're seeing it now. a rebellion by house democrats led by nancy pelosi against the white house, a rebellion by warren leading the left-wing faction of the party against the moderates, and it's a great free-for-all.

martha: for anybody who likes to watch politics. chris stirewalt is fox news digital politics editor. good to see you this morning, welcome. >> good morning, miss martha. martha: i want to play people a few sound bites, and then we'll get your response. let's take a look at that. >> i was so really heart broken. i don't think i've ever said that word on the floor of the house, heartbroken to see the taint that was placed on this valuable appropriations bill. from on high. martha: so what did the white house force them to do, chris, and why are they so unhappy about it? >> well, they didn't force her to do anything. and though i would be loathe to ever disagree with dr. krauthammer, i would have to say this, nancy pelosi in this case is still trying to act like she's in front of the parade. what happened here was elizabeth warren, freshman senator from massachusetts, started an insurrection. she had help of house members who were frustrated with nancy pelosi who has not been in the

majority, as you may recall, for some time, frustrated with her and the deal that she put together with house republicans and the white house. they started an insurrection, and nancy pelosi -- under threat, i believe -- jumped out in front and pretended she was leading the band. martha: so elizabeth warren, she wanted to uphold dodd-frank, you know, a number of measures in this bill that she was very unhappy with, campaign finance reform among them. you know, she's flexing some muscle here as well. what does this tell us about elizabeth warren's future plans? >> ah -- [laughter] well, i'll just put it this way: the only person in the democratic party right now who could mounted any kind of a -- mount any kind of a credible threat to hillary clinton, not only did she scuttle or almost scuttle this the topic that she chose which was banks and bank regulations, and she even branded it with hillary clinton's biggest source of

campaign donations over the years, citigroup. she even called it that and targeted it right on hillary clinton's greatest benefactors. we don't know what elizabeth warren's going to do, but i will say this, if hillary clinton thinks she can sit on the shelf until april or may and then come out and have her coronation, she's wrong, because elizabeth warren will use all that time to fire up the left that is not at all happy, not at all happy about the fact that hillary clinton is going to sail right in to their party's nomination. martha: since you brought it up, that's the word now, that hillary clinton's not going to announce until the spring. why do you think that is, chris? >> i think they're whistling past the graveyard. as my mother would have said, that's bar talk. by time they get to, i would say, january, the pressure will be growing, growing, growing for hillary clinton to get in the game. if they can make it to march, they'd be doing pretty well. anything past that is prerouse.

martha: chris, thank you so much. have a great weekend. bill: he knows nothing about the bar. martha: i know nothing about the bar talk. bill: karl rove last hour arguing it's part of a working strategy from house speaker john boehner, get through the rest of the year. >> i'm saying this is the last acts of dysfunctionalty. boehner wants to get it so that next year n2015 -- in 2015, in the budget that goes from october of 2015 to the end of 2016, that they do it as is required by law in regular order so that these budgets can be examined in detail by the respective committees of house and senate and done and have plenty of time to consider these things. bill: do you agree with that? what will change in the next congress? send us a tweet @billhemmer and @martha jon maccallum. also our facebook page,

"america's newsroom," you can like us on there and share a comment too. martha: yes, you can. and you do. and we thank you for that and keep it coming. bill: you got it. five minutes past the hour. it is called the pineapple express, and it's pounding the west coast. dangerous storm causing mudslides as it slams into southern california. in northern california widespread blackouts, more than a quarter million losing power as high waves slam on the shore. >> the water comes in, the water goes out. and the problem is, it leaves all this sludge and mud. >> even if you sand pga, the water is in the silt and the sand. bill: maria molina warned us about it, it's still happening today. how's it look? >> hello, everyone. wayment to -- i want to share some of these incredible rainfall totals because some areas have picked up close to a foot of rainfall. flash flooding has been occurring in some of these areas across california and, unfortunately, even reports of a

mudslide across ventura county out there in california. the wind has been also another big issue out there. take a look at some of these reported wind gusts across states like oregon and across california, exceeding over 100 miles per hour. and this is along some of the higher elevations out there for most of the west that have been really looking at some of those strong winds. but it's been windy all the way down through lower elevations. right now it is still raining across the los angeles area and even farther north across san francisco in northern california. we're also seeing significant snowfall rates across the higher elevations of the sierras, looking at rates of up to 2 inches per hour, and that's going to be producing very poor visibility out there. several feet of snowfall accumulation are forecast along those high elevations. as far as additional rainfall, we're still looking at some areas potentially picking up close to an inch of rainfall. you can see right there san diego, so that flood threat is going to continue in place. we do need the moisture, so this is welcome news across

california. 94% right now between severe to exceptional drought conditions. so, again, we really need the moisture. unfortunately, some areas need as much as 20 inches or even higher amounts of rainfall to bust that drought. and you can see coming up we're going to have a break as we head into saturday, but then another powerful storm system will be arriving as we head into sunday evening across parts of the west coast. expect more rain in areas like san francisco, northern california and eventually across parts of southern california. bill? bill: it just keeps on coming. i mean, wow. thank you, maria. maria molina there. martha? martha: here's one way to get around when it's underwater, some kayakers in heelsburg, california, finding it easier to paddle than to drive. an overflowing creek sending water into the down up to area. these kayakers rose to the equation, going around and checking submerged cars to see if anybody was stuck and needed help. classes canceled, you know, when

this happens -- bill: unbelievable. martha: -- you need a boat. bill: that's a lovely town, by the way. martha: it's a beautiful town. right in the middle of all those vineyards. bill: hang in there, california. this note from the world of business, chrysler recalling vehicles with faulty airbags, 179,000 more vehicles to be warped or taken off the -- warned or taken off the road including the ram pickup truck as well as the dodge durango and dodge magnum between 2003, 2005. the airbags, made by the takata corporation, could explode with too much force and shoot shrapnel at drivers and passengers. so yet another expansion of that recall. martha: and escalating turmoil on the west bank. new clashes erupting between israeli forces and palestinian protesters. this following the controversial death of a palestinian minister earlier this week. volleys of rocks also flying through the air in hebron, one

of the most hotly-contested cities in the territory. israel has sent in reinforcements as it deals with a shaky security situation, and that story is not going away anytime soon. bill: in the meantime, the timing of the cia interrogation report released exclusively by democrats is being called into question. >> isn't it interesting that we wait until al-qaeda is on the run and the terror threat has been minimized? it's been 13 years before all of a sudden everyone wakes up to the problem. where were they in 2004? bill: is america turning on its warriors because they feel safe iser now than they did -- safer now than they did after 9/11? general jack keane will take that on today. martha: then congressional staffers stage a walkout on capitol hill. what was this all about? we'll tell ya. bill: late last night this woman voted against, voted no on the house spending bill. michele bachmann is our guest in a moment.

we will ask her why and what is next. >> nobody's here to shut down the government. the mesh people have to live -- the american people have to live under the rule of law, we think the president should have to live under the rule of law.

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minority associations took part in that. ♪ ♪ >> that means protect the constitution and the separation of powers. the president has claimed the authority to write laws out of the oval office of the white house. he has no such authority, and we've got to have a vote to prove that. martha: congressman steve king accusing the president of executive overreach on immigration. conservatives are pushing to use the power of the purse to block his deportation order including congresswoman michele bachmann, republican from minnesota. good to have you here on your last day in office. it's good to have you. let's jump into some of this, and then we'll get to that in just a moment. you're very unhappy, obviously, with the passage of this bill. why? >> it's the most consequential vote that i cast in eight years because not only is it an unconstitutional act that the president made by issuing millions of work permits or his

threat to do so which is effectively amnesty, but it's also a breaking of the social compact between the united states government and the american people. we shouldn't be funding illegal, unconstitutional activity by the president of the united states, and what was very offensive to me is that we weren't even allowed to vote on defunding the president's illegal activity. what we did, in effect, martha, was to fully fund the president's agenda through october 1st of this year. why republicans would do that is beyond me. we had the president of the united states on the upon the lobby -- on the phone lobbying for passage of john boehner's bill yesterday. so we had john babier and the -- boehner and the president working together to get this bill passed which fully funds the president's illegal activity. martha: but i think in february that picture could change, and the thinking on john boehner's part and those who stood with him was that once they get to

february, they're going to have both sides of capitol hill, of course, and a lot more leeway than they have right now. they wanted to push that discussion to that point to have a little more leverage. >> well, i hear and understand what you're saying. but, again, by that time the president is already putting together a thousand individuals working in crystal city to issue these work permits. and so the question is, will the leadership fight against the amnesty, and will they fight against the work permits? as a member of congress, i have not seen the republican leadership fight against the work permits or fight against amnesty. and i think really, martha, the big question is this: would we have seen this vote in the week before the election? and i think never in any parallel universe would we have ever seen this vote just prior to the election. if that's so, why were we handgun to have this vote -- willing to have this vote today, after the election? because the american people don't want amnesty, and they

don't want us funding the president's illegal amnesty. and i think that's what we need to do. we need to respect the american people -- martha: understood. >> this is insulting. martha: let me ask you this, you've been a very proud and outspoken spokeswoman in many ways for the tea party and the issues that they've stood for over the course of your term on capitol hill, and today's your last day on capitol hill -- >> this is. martha: how do you think your party's going to look in january and going forward in this next congress? >> well, i'm extremely excited with the election results. this would be the first time in a long time that the congress has been led by republicans both in the house and in the senate, and i am hopeful that they will be emboldened to do the right thing. because the values that people care about are these: they don't want the government to spend more money than what it takes in, they want the government to follow the laws that it passes, and they believe that people are taxed enough already. martha: but are you concerned,

that -- i'm sorry to interrupt you, but are you concerned that voices like yours are not going to have a prominent position in this new congress? >> well, i think that with these larger numbers, i think we'll see more and more men and probably a little bit fewer conservatives, but again, this is an opportunity for republicans to show what they're made of and what their agenda is. and as long as we follow what it is that the american people want, the republicans will continue to win elections in the future. that's really it. we need to do what we say we're going to do, and we need to follow the will of the people, and our country will be just fine. martha: understood. i know you said you've been happy, even though it's your last day, because you feel like you've been fighting to the very last minute of your service on capitol hill. i also understand you took an opportunity at the white house christmas party to ask the president to bomb iranian nuclear facilities during your moment with him shaking the hands by the christmas tree. how did that go? [laughter] >> well, you know, i decided this will be the last time that

i'll have a conversation with the president of the united states in my capacity as a member of congress, and i decided to have a substantive conversation. and i thought about what is the most important issue facing the united states today, and it's iran obtaining a nuclear weapon. so i asked the president to be very serious and to think about this because if iran obtains a nuclear weapon on his watch, the course of history will change. martha: what was his response? >> so i used that time. pardon? martha: what was his response? >> well, he was actually fairly condescending. he smiled and laughed and was fairly patron iizing and said, well, you know, it just isn't that easy, michelle, but that's okay. like i'm a little woman who doesn't know what i'm talking about. so i said, no, mr. president, this is quite serious, this will be on your watch, and you can't go backwards. this is the ultimate in high stakes bingo. we can't get it wrong. and if there's anything iran has proved, it's that they have blown through every requirement, and they have moved fully ahead to put together their nuclear

program. this is a very serious issue. they have stated unequivocally they will bomb the united states, they will bomb israel, they will use this weapon if they have it, and i believe under no circumstances should iran ever have access to a nuclear weapon. but they're on their way. they're well on their way. martha: interesting exchange. and i know something you feel very strongly, obviously, and very passionately about. i want the thank you for being with us quite often in your capacity as congresswoman and wish you well in your future endeavors, and i'm sure we'll see you on the other side and in your next life, in the next chapter as well. thank you very much, congresswoman michele bachmann. good to see you. happy holidays to you and your family. >> thank you. the best is yet to come. bill: something tells me she's not going away quietly. martha: a smile and a picture by the christmas tree, the president got a little more than he bargained for in that exchange, i think. bill: about 20 minutes past the hour now. why the president's immigration decree could end up costing

americans billions of dollars in tax fraud money. we'll explain that. martha: and a heartless thief breaks into a church, stealing christmas presents from under the tree. grinch-like. i would say. >> if you're stealing from a church at christmas time, and if you'll steal from a church at christmas time, you'll steal from anyone. i'm an idaho potato farmer and our big idaho potato truck is still missing. so my buddy here is going to help me find it. here we go. woo who, woah, woah, woah. it's out there somewhere spreading the word about america's favorite potatoes: heart healthy idaho potatoes and the american heart association's go red for women campaign. if you see it i hope you'll let us know. always look for the grown in idaho seal.

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martha: this terrible story caught on video. one woman seen stealing christmas presents from a church near fresno, california. she makes three trips to get the gifts for the homeless from under that tree. watch this. >> this is just us. i mean, we're giving them away to people who need them. if she needed them, we would have given them to her. you didn't need to break in and feel stuff.

martha: she rummages around the whole building, finally she puts everything in a big black trash bag, kind of like the grinch, and leaves. police are still looking for this thief. ♪ ♪ bill: the cost of president obama's executive action on immigration now going even higher. perhaps more than one million undocumented people can now receive benefits through two federal programses, both of which an irs watchdog group says is plagued by fraud. byron york writes about it, chief washington correspondent for the washington examiner and a fox news contributor. good morning to you. >> good morning, bill. bill: this is the income earned tax credit which does what? how are you eligible? >> well, there are two programs. one is the earned income tax credit, one is the child tax credit. they're meant for working people, for low income people, and what they are is a tax refund that's bigger than your tax liability. so in other words, the government writes you a check. if you have a tax liability you

might qualify for a refund of $5,000. well, here comes a $4,000 check to you. so this is a program in which the government actually sends out billions of dollars to low income americans. bill: okay. important for them too, you know? let's face it, a lot of folks depend on this. but this is the cost that goes out, right? $63 billion in earned income tax credits. huge number. but the improper benefits totals $14,500,000,000. how does that happen? >> the biggest reason is the irs doesn't want to enforce it and crack down on fraud. we've known for a long time that the earned income tax credit has a huge fraud rate. the fraud rate is now 24% according to this new report. what we didn't know is that the additional child tax credit -- and, remember, these are the two things that president obama says will now apply for illegal

immigrants affected by his program -- the additional child tax credit has a fraud rate of between 25-30%. these are absolutely huge. the government says there's a problem a fraud rate many a program is above 2.5%, and this one's close to 30%. bill: byron, how do people cheat on this? i mean, is it, is it simple paperwork? >> well, the irs says a lot of people have what they call complex living arrangements. there'll be a number of people who give the same address on tax returns and say they qualify for this tax credit. the problem is the irs doesn't really want to crack down on this. the irs actually rejected the suggestions, the recommendations of this inspector general report saying that it would just be too hard, or it might hurt people who legitimately do qualify for these benefits. and we've had -- congress has passed bills, the president has done it in executive order ordering the irs to crack down

on this. it has never happened, and the fraud keeps getting bigger and bigger every year. bill: well, you make the point that the irs management dismissed this report. >> they did. bill: in the end, i'd like to say something's going to change, but you're going to tell me, no, it's not. >> no, it's not. these numbers are huge. in the last ten years, just the earned income tax credit alone, estimated fraud between $124 and $148 billion. this is billion, not million. that's more than we spend each year on, say, veterans' benefits or the justice system or transportation or all sorts of federal priorities. this is a huge, huge fraud on the taxpayer. bill: it's a waste of money, and it would be a lot better if people cared. >> absolutely. bill: byron york, thanks for bringing it to light. >> thank you, bill. martha: the senate interrogation report placing blame where it's least deserved, on those who are keeping us safe from terrorists, say many. general keane will set the record straight on what he thinks and who he thinks really deserves it. bill: also a time capsule has

been found possibly hidden by paul revere himself. martha: that is fascinating. bill: so we ask, what's in it? we're about to find out. martha: one if by land, two if by sea. ♪ ♪ comfort keepers can provide a variety of in-home services for your aging loved ones. we'll assess their needs and create a custom care plan that can change as their needs change. ♪

♪ ♪ bill: there is growing backlash against the senate democratic report on cia interrogation. critics saying it blames brave agents who are racing -- risking their lives to keep us safe even today. here is general bob scales making his case with greta last night. >> all of a sudden folks start turning on the warrior class. it happens after every war when they feel safe enough to go back and parse every action that was made in extreme mis, in the height of combat at a time when

america was frightened, turning to the military and the cia to keep them safe. and once they feel safe, they go back to moral equivalence. bill: general jack keane, a fox news military analyst. how are you, general? good morning, good morning to you. >> good morning, bill. bill: how do you see that based based -- >> well, i agree with general scales, but i would add this. certainly, these political leaders today all supported the president's decision on enhanced interrogation techniques, and now they're separating themselves from that decision. and when you separate it from the context of that decision, it's easy to ride the moral high ground and denigrate those decisions based on core values. but the truth is, bill, history is on the side of presidents who were informed by core values but national security and protecting the american people took precedence. so you have lincoln who made war on the southern people, not just a confederate army.

you have roosevelt who makes war on the german people, not just the nazis and the german army. 350,000 civilians killed. you have truman, drops two bombs on japanese cities, atomic bombs and also carpet bombs and fire bombs tokyo. dead, close to 500,000. and we have bush who makes a decision, i believe in his mind, to protect the american people. i believe he has a ticking bomb scenario. he makes a decision informed by core values. national security takes precedence, and now people want to separate themselves from that and take it out of context. bill: two days ago michael hayden was on our program. he ran the cia. he was basically called a liar. he makes a similar case to scales. listen. >> now that we've made everyone feel more comfortable, they've stopped complaining that we're not doing enough to keep them safe. now since we've made them feel safe again, they start complaining that we did too much.

bill: do you think some of that's going on? >> oh, yeah, absolutely. and it goes back to the point that director brennan made yesterday, which i really applauded the way he began that press conference by stating the case again and bringing the audience back to what had taken place on 9/11. the context of that issue. and you can only understand these decisions within that context. and now we have people 13 years later separating themselves from that and using other arguments against it. bill: so you're saying, you could make a moorl and ethical -- moral and ethical argument against this, but when you take it in context, it's different entirely. >> i mean, i went to a jesuit school, fordham university. we made moral and ethical arguments against nagasaki, against roosevelt's carpet bombing of german people. but you can only understand those decisions, and these are presidents who enjoy the respect of the american people and are being treated very well in

history, you can only appreciate those decisions because their ultimate and first respondent is the -- respond -- respond -- responsibility is the safety of the american public. bill: i think the polls in the coming days could be interesting and telling. what do you think? >> well, as of right now, the polls do support the actions taken to protect the american people post-9/11, and i think as we get even further away from that, i'm not a historian, but i would suspect that president bush and these actions that he took will be justified by his desire to protect the american people just as history has supported lincoln, roosevelt and truman in the decisions i tried to outline that they made. bill: so we'll be on standby for that. it will be interesting to see. general, thank you for your time. i guess in the interest of being fair and balanced, go army. >> oh, my god.

[laughter] bill: i mean, last hour they said go navy, so we're just trying to keep it even. martha: better watch out for general keane. >> the army needs everybody's prayers here. martha: maybe he should get out there and put a jersey on. bill: thank you, general. talk soon. >> thanks, bill. martha: so a time capsule hidden for centuries was just removed from the massachusetts statehouse in boston. this is fascinating, this story. it was put there by two american patriots, samuel adams -- who brought us the great beer, right, bill? -- and paul revere in 1795. chief correspondent jonathan hunt, a revolutionary himself -- [laughter] is live in our new york city newsroom. so, jonathan, what is in this capsule? >> first of all, i have very mixed feelings about this paul revere character -- [laughter] i guess i can embrace him. we're told that inside this capsule, martha, are coins and engraved silver plates and a

whole bunch of newspapers from 1795. goodness knows what condition they're in, but this was dug out and found in a cornerstone of the massachusetts statehouse. officials, as you can imagine, nerdy as they are very excited to open it because, as they say, the history of massachusetts is the history of the united states. listen here. >> it was a hard day's work, a long day's work, but, you know, it's an important part of our patrimony here in massachusetts, and we want to protect it and do it right, and we didn't want to make any mistakes. she did a terrific job, and all the men and women who worked on this project did a terrific job. >> reporter: interestingly, this was only discovered, martha, because of ongoing construction at the massachusetts statehouse. if they hadn't had to rebuild the water filtration system, we might never have known about it. martha: isn't it fascinating that they put that there all those years ago and no doubt lots of thought about what they put inside it, and it's the second capsule of this kind

that's been opened in just the past few months, right? >> reporter: yeah. remember back in october the time capsule that was removed from the iconic lion's head statue also at the massachusetts statehouse. they opened that back in october. treasure-trove of historical artifacts inside it, photographs, autographs from when it was placed in the statue. also campaign buttons for mckinley and teddy roosevelt. but getting back to this new time capsule or this latest, actually, old orer time capsule, martha. as you mentioned, put there in part by sam adams, so i'm just hoping they find beer. [laughter] bill: you would. >> reporter: and i'll volunteer to drink it. martha: thank you, jonathan. it's not going to be cold. bill: breaking news out of london. getting word of travel issues in europe. the entire air space over london is currently closed due to a computer failure. so what does that mean? is that heathrow?

is that gatwick? i don't even know if those planes even fly over the city of london. more to the outskirts, but there you see a little bit -- that's file video. we had a live image, but it's not in just yet. a computer glitch has the air space shut down over london. what's that all about? martha: we'll see what's going on there. bill: we shall. martha: and just how private are your private conversations? this is a huge and growing story. there's new backlash from this sony cyber attack over leaked e-mails from hollywood power players making racially-charged remarks about the president and more. bill: also what was just found growing in queen elizabeth's royal garden. it's a trip. watch out for the white rabbits. ♪ ♪

♪ ♪ bill: so we're watching this story out of london, got an image from sky news. you see left of your screen, those are all the yellow airplanes that you see hunkered down around the west part of london. what's significant is that east of there, there are very few planes in the air. that's because the european air control agency, called euro control, says the air space over london has been closed after a computer failure. heathrow airport they're saying there was a power outage at the control center in another part of england. that statement giving no indication how long the situation would last or how long it was underway. but our bureau out of london is watching this story. here's the statement, quote: bill: and we will do that as well. once we get more information as to what's happening in london. ♪ ♪ martha: this story just keeps coming. no fullout from the sony

pictures -- fallout from the sony pictures cyber attack after an e-mail exchange was leaked to the media. two hollywood power players making racially-insensitive remarks, mocking president obama. sony exconservative amy pascal -- executive amy pascal and producer scott rudin chatting before they went to a fundraiser with obama in 2013, pascal asking hudin what she should stay to the president at the stupid breakfast, and rudin writes back, would he like to finance movies? martha: those are all movies, obviouslyh african-american stars. now to talk about this and the large err implications of the cyber hacking and what gets released and doesn't get released, kevin jackson, author of "race pimping," and a radio

talk show host. leslie marshall's with us as well, fox news contributor. welcome to both of you. there are several elements to this story. you know, there's the insensitivity that's expressed in that exchange that i want to talk to you about, also the health records of sony executives and their children, specifically their names, the things that they're suffering with was released in all of this. so there's a big picture here as well. kevin, address if you would these comments, because we live in a world where paula deen and donald sterling have faced a tremendous amount of outrage for somewhat similar comments. >> yeah. i personally think it's much ado about nothing. other than the fact that it tells you a little bit more of the insight into hollywood. and i think it's more of a condemnation of the black films that get made and the idea that these guys are ridiculing these films, yet they're obviously patronizing to the black audiences that go to see 'em. as far as obama is concerned, i

think it's good-natured ribbing. i think what they're saying is this guy, you know, he can't pick a good film, and he probably mimics a lot of what many conservative americans believe about his policies. martha: leslie, what do you think? >> oh, kevin. i feel like i have a single bullet, magic bullet theory going on here. [laughter] with all due respect, my friend, kevin, you're color blind on this issue, sir. this is clearly, first of all, the first two films they talk about in the e-mail, both are about slavery, african-american leads playing slaves. all four films have to do with african-american leads, an african-american cast, and i think it's completely offensive not only to the numerous african-americans who buy tickets that help to pay the salaries of these folks at sony, but to the talent, the many producers and directors, actors and actresses that are also african-american.

it's very offensive, and that's the talk here in the hollywood area today. martha: i mean, i think -- hold on, ken. we put up paula deen, donald sterling who said reprehensible things of varying degrees, i should point out. but, you know, this morning i heard on another channel them sort of coming to the defense of these hollywood folks and saying is it really fair to release their e-mails, and i thought, well, why not? if that's the world that we are living in where these people had, you know, things that they claim were taken out of context and handled in the same way. >> well, martha, part of it is, it is private messages. look, i don't think there's any privacy in america anymore with respect to that. people get hacked all the time and that kind of thing is going to be, i think, big in the future. but at the end of the day, say what you mean and mean what you say. if they're having a little bit of fun at the idea of a black president and these slavery movies, they could have gone back to roots and a whole bunch of other things. they were making fun of the idea of these movies which, by the

way, is making money of themselves -- making fun of themselves. they're the ones making these movies. it isn't tyler perry they're ridiculing, they're ridiculing themselves. martha: we're going to have to leave it there. interesting take, kevin, and good to have both of you with us, kevin and leslie. this one's not going away with bigger issues about our privacy we mails and health records and all of that as it gets bigger and bigger. thanks, you guys. >> thanks. bill: back to breaking news, london, west of london, anyway, this is what the air space looks like over central london. very few planes because a computer glitch apparently is preventing air space from being flown over in london. you imagine that in new york city? martha: no. bill: newark, jfk and laguardia, it would be a downright mess, and apparently it's a mess too for the folks in london. some are reporting that this will stay the way it is for, well, the foreseeable future. we're trying to figure out a time, whether that's minutes or hours from now, but we'll be

back on this breaking news in a matter of moments here on america "america's newsroom." over 12,000 financial advisors. so, how are things? good, good. nearly $800 billion dollars in assets under care. let me just put this away. how did edward jones get so big? could you teach our kids that trick? by not acting that way. ok, last quarter... it's how edward jones makes sense of investing. ♪

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now, here's some news you may find even more surprising. we're comcast. the only isp legally bound by full net neutrality rules. ♪ bill: so we've got an eye on what's happening in london right now where the entire air space is closed after a computer breakdown. greg talcott's watching that live in the our bureau now. greg, what do you have? what happened? >> reporter: bill, this all happened in the last 25 minutes or so, the reports came out. apparently, the air space over southern england is closed. this due to a power outage at a air traffic control center in the southern part of this country. it is making a real mess out of the very busy skies around here. heathrow airport, arguably one of the busiest airports in the world, is shut down as we speak.

there are no flights going in, there are no flights going out. what, you might ask, is going to happen to all the planes that are in the air ready to land, ready to take off as well? well, they're circling right now because gatwick, the second largest airport in the london area, is also closed. airports further away like manchester are still operating, but it's unclear whether any of these flights will be diverted to airports that are two, three, four hours' drive away from here or whether these planes are going to keep circling around. now, the deal is, bill, that the -- as of now the air space is closed until seven. that is three hours from now. we'll do a calculation for our next report and tell you how many flights that means have to be diverted, but i've got to tell you, it's going to be hundreds and hundreds, and that means thousands and thousands of air travelers could be messed up. and then there's the knock-on effect, of course, bill. again, heathrow one of the busy

airports in the world, and that means a lot of people who are going to connect through london and go on elsewhere are also going to be affected. so we have just begun to see chaos. i think important thing to say, however, is we are not seeing a security issue in the sky. that is, there are no near misses or anything like that. obviously, the air traffic controllers are working very hard to negotiate a big choreographed dance in the sky right now, big 747s, etc. but as of now one of the biggest airports in the world shut down as well as a couple of others. we're working it as we speak. bill: that's going to be a mess for the u.k., a mess for the entire continent too. greg, thank you. back to greg talcott and our team there in london in a moment on that. thanks, greg. martha. martha: in the meantime, a massive and deadly storm hitting the west coast, the latest on the so-called -- sounds friendly, but it's not -- the

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>> the soldiers have an emotional homecoming after being overseas. the woman thinks is she is going to talk to her husband on the screen at the home game but there was a technical glitch -- or so she thought. >> we welcome him home early for the holidays! >> that is pretty awesome, right? the sergeant surprised his wife and met his newborn son for the very first time. no wonder the baby looked like he didn't recognize him. they will get to know each

other. back to the breaking news in a moment. "happening now" will pick it up. >> see you back on monday. well, your government is up and running this morning. a shutdown narrowly averted as they get a 1.1 trillion spending bill through the house barely. >> the massive spending bill passed last night despite loosing a lot of support on both sides of the aisle. they approved it 219-206. >> the battle moves on the to senate where a budget will be discussed. current funding technically